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BATTLE OF ALGIERS (15) 2.00 (It/Algeria 1965) dir.Gillo Pontecorvo 120m. Subtitles. “The prototype for all the mainstream political cinema of the ‘70s, from Rosi to Costa-Gavras. It relegates the actual liberation of Algeria to an epilogue, and focuses instead on a specific phase of the Algerian guerilla struggle against the French, the years between 1954 (when the FLN regrouped, recruited new members and tackled the problem of organised crime in the casbah) and 1957 (when French paratroopers under Colonel Mathieu launched a systematic – and largely successful – attack on the FLN from the roots up). Pontecorvo refuses to caricature the French or glamorise the Algerians: instead he sketches the way a guerilla movement is organised and the way a colonial force sets about decimating it. There’s a minimum of verbal rhetoric: the urgent images and Ennio Morricone’s thunderous score spell out the underlying political sympathies.”
(France 2005) dir.Robert Guédiguian 116m. Subtitles. “Anyone familiar with Guédiguian’s MARIUS ET JEANNETTE or A LA PLACE DU CŒUR might initially feel disoriented by this lightly fictionalised account of the last days of François Mitterrand, French President for over a decade, as viewed from the perspective of Moreau, a young journalist invited to work on Mitterrand’s memoirs. Nominally, the ‘story’ hinges on what Mitterrand had been up to in 1942, but the film, which wholly ignores certain sensational and/or non-political aspects of his character and career, transcends factual investigation to provide a moving meditation on the troubling parallel relationship between Mitterrand’s ailing body and the body politic. It’s an ambivalent but deeply affecting work.” |
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (18) 1.00 (US 2005) dir.David Cronenberg 96m. "Diner proprietor Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen), his lawyer wife Edie (Maria Bello) and their two kids seem to have a pretty idyllic existence in smalltown America until a couple of gleefully murderous hoods turn up by chance at the eaterie, and an order for coffee escalates to terrorising Tom and his customers. Quick thinking on his part leads to reluctant celebrity and, – still more unwelcome – further visits, from sinister wise guys hinting that Tom may not be quite the clean-cut Ordinary Joe he says he is. The film succeeds not only in terms of action and suspense but as cautionary fable, historical allegory, social satire and moral disquisition. In short, it's marvellous, and up there with SPIDER as Cronenberg's very best work." An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (18) 1.00 (US 2005) dir.David Cronenberg 96m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
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LE GRAND VOYAGE (PG) 2.00 (France/Morocco 2004) dir.Ismael Ferroukhi 108m. Subtitles. A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda, a young man who lives in the south of France, finds himself forced to drive his father to Mecca. From the start, the journey is difficult: Reda and his father have nothing in common and conversation is reduced to the strict minimum. Reda wants to experience the trip in his own way but his father demands respect for himself and expects his son to understand the meaning of his pilgrimage. How can they create a relationship when communication is impossible? “The film dramatises how Reda and his father move from a relationship of indifference and hostility to one of mutual recognition and reconciliation. It is through their silences that Reda and his father communicate the most.” Ismaël Ferroukhi (Preview courtesy of Parasol Pecadillo Releasing) £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s |
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MACHUCA (15) 2.15 (Chile 2004) dir.Andrés Wood 121m. Subtitles. “The turbulent days of 1973, in which Augusto Pinochet seized power over Chile before embarking on two decades of brutal oppression, are seen through the eyes of two young boys from opposite ends of Santiago society in Machuca. Chilean director Andrés Wood's evocative rites-of-passage drama tells the story of friends Gonzalo and Pedro, and uses the boys' changing relationship as a metaphor for the social tensions that helped destroy a nation. Machuca is an eloquent and moving take on the tragedy of a society that attacks its own and successfully humanises difficult ideas of political and class loyalty.” (Uruguay/Argentina 2004) dirs.Pablo Stoll & Juan Pablo Rebella 99m. “What we have here is a Latin American equivalent to recent films by Aki Kaurismäki. Sixty-years-old Jacobo Köller owns a sock factory; till a year ago, he looked after his mother, which seems to have left him morose and devoted to routine. But now his brother Herman, who lives with his wife in Brazil and missed mom’s funeral, plans to visit for the erection of a headstone, so Jacobo asks his forewoman Marta to pretend to be his wife for the duration of Herman’s stay... It should be said that some of the above is deduced only by yours truly rather than made explicit in the narrative; dialogue is sparse, and one of the movie’s pleasures stems from actively engaging with what’s shown in order to make sense of motives, cause and effect, nuance and resonance. Lovely Stuff.” |
Tue 11 Oct • Parents & Babies Club MONSTER-IN-LAW (12A) 1.00 (US 2005) dir.Robert Luketic 101m. “After 15 years' absence, Jane Fonda makes a triumphant return to the big screen in madcap comedy MONSTER-IN-LAW. The veteran star is a joy to behold as she sinks her polished claws into the sassy Latina who dares marry her son. Fonda's fearsome mommy will make you scream with laughter. When Fonda enters the scene as potential mother-in-law Viola Fields, the action locks into gear. Viola is a washed-up chat show host fresh from the funny farm after having a breakdown on national television. With little left to live for, she refuses to let a "temp" steal her precious boy and so the games begin... Not since Bette Davis' Baby Jane has Hollywood seen a woman so deliciously delirious. From the moment she lunges at a Britney Spears clone, hands clawed and teeth bared, Fonda sets up a wild bitch fest. It's also where Luketic finds his footing, consistently tuned to the punchline. MONSTER-IN-LAW is fiendishly good fun.” An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
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MONSTER-IN-LAW (12A) 2.30 (US 2005) dir.Robert Luketic 101m. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/free for Over 60’s |
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (18) 1.45 (US 2005) dir.David Cronenberg 96m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
PRESSURE (15) 2.00 (UK 1975) dir.Horace Ové 117m. A rare chance to see a British classic – the first Black British feature film. PRESSURE tells the story of a British-born teenager, whose attempts to fit in backfire as he is forced to see and react to the effects of racism in his life. Even if it wasn't a ‘first’, PRESSURE would still be a landmark in British cinema. It is a historical record of the untold story of the Black experience in this country. It is a cultural commentary on how African and Caribbean people forged a new identity in the UK. And it is a political debate during the height of the Black Power movement. Above all, it is a great story of one young man's bitter journey from innocence to consciousness. Horace Ové is internationally known as one of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post war period. His 1970 documentary REGGAE, was the first in-depth film on black music. His career has produced such diverse films as PLAYING AWAY, A HOLE IN BABYLON, BALDWIN'S NIGGER (with James Baldwin and Dick Gregory), WHO SHALL WE TELL? about the Bhopal gas disaster, THE ORCHID HOUSE and SKATEBOARD KINGS, which takes an in-depth look at the phenomenon at its height in the 1970's. Alongside his film career Ové has worked extensively as a photographer all over the world covering social and political events. He has had several international exhibitions & twelve of his portraits were purchased as part of the permanent exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery and were exhibited in 2004. + Q&A with Horace Ové Admission free |
ROCKERS (15) 2.00 (Us/Jam1979) dir.Theodoros Bafaloukos 99m. New Print. “A Trenchtown variant on ROBIN HOOD, with dreadlock drummer Horsemouth up against the local minor-league mafia. An excellent soundtrack (Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Bunny Wailer, etc), and an endearingly witty script which digresses through explanations of the Rasta faith and countless idiosyncratic solidarity rituals, make for a delightful piece of whimsy. Complete with subtitles translitering the Rasta patois.” (Jamaica 2003) dir.Rick Elgood & Don Letts 100m. “There's an uncompromisingly laid-back sense of pace in this Jamaican-set movie of star-crossed lovers. Ky-Mani Marley, son of Bob, stars as a Rasta musician called Kassa who falls in love with a beautiful gospel singer (Cherine Anderson), to the fury of her fierce preacher dad. Meanwhile, Kassa's band get mixed up with some dodgy record producers and voodoo creepos. Ky-Mani is the dead heartwarming spit of his dad.” £7.50/5.50 Concessions |
KINKY BOOTS (12A) 1.00 (UK 2005) dir.Julian Jarrold 107m. “Based on a true story, this is a feel-good British comedy from the creators of CALENDAR GIRLS. It's engaging and blessed with a seriously good cast. Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) has just moved to London with his girlfriend (Jemina Rooper) when his father dies (Robert Pugh). Now he has to return to Northampton to run the family shoe business, but Old World quality isn't as popular as it used to be, and the business is on the brink of bankruptcy. A chance meeting with the colourful drag queen Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) changes Charlie's life. And Lola's too, as he designs a new range of outlandish footwear to restore the company fortune.” An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
KINKY BOOTS (12A) 1.00 (UK 2005) dir.Julian Jarrold 107m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
JOURNEY TO THE OTHER SIDE (15) 1.30 (India 2004) dir.Bipin Nadkarni 92m. Subtitles. “One of the most charming and invigorating Indian films of the year and a definite crowd pleaser. Uttarayan set in bustling Mumbai (Bombay), is essentially about love given a second chance. Raghu is a widower who returns to Mumbai to meet his son who has a new fiancée. He finds Mumbai changed but then bumps into an old pal Babu, they reminisce about old friends and Babu mentions seeing Kusum. Raghu is lost for a moment remembering his first love. He sets out to meet the once beautiful Kusum and discovers she is now a lonely librarian. Slipping out more and more frequently from his son's wedding arrangements, Raghu regularly meets Kusum, hearing about her abusive former marriage. Gentle and charming Raghu slowly brings joy into Kusum's life while finding new meaning in his own. Director Bipin Nadkarni deftly unpeels the rich relationship between these two later-day lovers, their reserved nature due to hardship and yet through it all what emerges is joyous humour and camaraderie. A guaranteed tearjerker.” (Turkey 2005) dir.Kutlug Ataman 107m. Subtitles. “A vibrant drama of teenage life in modern Turkey, Kutlug Ataman's third feature is a gritty, energetic affair, based on Perihan Magden's controversial best-selling novel. Ataman already has a strong reputation for offering a sympathetic voice to the disaffected and disenfranchised – in artworks such as the remarkable KUBA earlier this year, and in his previous film LOLA + BILIDIKID – so this tale of troubled teenagers is in good hands. Behiye (newcomer Feride Cetin) is angry and rebellious, but her frequent outbursts cut little ice with her conservative family. Handan (Vildan Atasever) is trapped in a different way, in a love-hate relationship with her single mother Leman (Hulya Avsar). Although Leman is willing to turn tricks to raise Handan's college fees, she's otherwise hopeless with both men and money. When a mutual friend introduces Behiye and Handan they immediately hit it off, and despite the differences in their backgrounds they embark on an intense relationship, and with it a secret plan to escape their dysfunctional families. Aside from eliciting convincing performances, Ataman brings a distinctive and contemporary look to the film, underpinned by a driving score by Replikas.” Tickets: £8.20 available in advance from The Times bfi London Film Festival (www.lff.org.uk or telephone 7928 3232) or from the Rio box office. £5.00 Concessions tickets will also be available from the cinema but only on the day. |
BROKEN FLOWERS (15) 10.30am (US 2005) dir.Jim Jarmush 106m. "With flawless performances and a gently hilarious tone, Jarmusch catches life with nuance and charm in this subtle comedy. And with its soul-searching theme, it's like a delicate variation on ABOUT SCHMIDT. Don Johnston (Bill Murray) is a confirmed bachelor whose girlfriend (Julie Delpy) gets fed up and leaves, just as he receives an anonymous letter saying that he has a long-lost 18-year-old son. His neighbour (Jeffrey Wright) is an amateur sleuth, and plots a fact-finding mission for Don to visit his girlfriends from that time period. What follows is a voyage into the past, as Don catches up with the sexy Laura (Sharon Stone), thoughtful Dora (Frances Conroy), sensual Carmen (Jessica Lange) and physical Penny (Tilda Swinton). Can life ever be the same after such a journey?” An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (U) 10.30am (Japan 2004) dir.Hayao Miyazaki 119m. Animation. “Hayao Miyazaki is the 64-year-old Japanese animation genius whose mastery of the form has come to its full flowering just as his craft is on the verge of becoming forever obsolete. He is a real artist of cinema who works with hand-drawn images in the old style while everyone about him is fully immersed in computer techniques. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE has worked its charm on me: a floatingly delightful fairytale with its heart set on repealing the law of gravity. The film is a touching parable about the transforming power of love and the scary burden of youth. It is set in a fictional middle European town on an unnamed coast. It is in this Ruritanian place that teenage Sophie works in a hat-shop. Her life is turned upside down when she is rescued from two boorish soldiers by Howl: a notorious wizard who lives in his own moving castle. Her association with this dashing, dangerous outsider excites the fury of Howl's enemy, the Wicked Witch of the Waste. The witch casts a spell on Sophie, turning her into an ancient old crone. How can the spell be reversed? She determines to find Howl and beg for his help. Miyazaki's films require a conscious investment of attention; you have to immerse yourself in them, and soon you will find yourself floating, buoyed up by his gentleness, his visual exuberance, and his unshowy intelligence and emotional literacy. It is a lovely film for all ages.” An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
Fri 28 Oct • Late Night Shorts FUTURE SHORTS (15) 11.15pm ESTER CAN’T STOP BREATHING THE RIBBON MILK RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS NEIGHBOUR NIE SOLO SEIN HELL’S KITCHEN FAST FILM EAT DOG CAT MOUSE TO BE CONTINUED OVERTIME £5.50/£4.50 Concessions |
500 YEARS LATER (PG) 1.30 (US/UK 2005) dir.Owen ‘Alik Shahadah 106m. Crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, poor education, inferiority complex, low expectation, poverty, corruption, poor health, and underdevelopment plagues people of African decent globally – Why? 500 years after the onset of Slavery and subsequent Colonialism, Africans are still struggling for basic freedom – Why? Filmed in five continents, and over twenty countries, this film engages the authentic retrospective voice of those whom history has sought to silence by examining the collective atrocities that uprooted Africans from their culture and homeland. 500 Years Later is a timeless compelling journey, infused with the spirit and music of liberation that chronicles the struggle of a people who have fought and continue to fight for the most essential human right – freedom. £6/£4 Concessions & Under 15’s |
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Capturing Certain Conditions 11.15pm - 1.30am Participants are asked to bring in a cued selection from TV, news, a video or a film of their own or by others (1 - 5 min). What is of relevance at this point in time? 16Beaver has for some time been interested in constructing or looking for alternative formats of social exchange. This particular exchange will take place through the selection of videos that will be screened. Individuals are asked to bring in a cued selection from a video/film/dvd of their own, from television, from films, from friends, which captures a very specific condition. We should note that we are not interested in great works of art or even artists works. Instead we are interested in encouraging a dialogue to take place about the present moment, our current condition. The selections can be seen as questions, responses, provocations, or suggested lines of inquiry. They are also meant to speak toward the ability or inability of the selected medium (television, film, video, internet stream) to capture anything at all. Our only demand is that the selections be between 1:00 to 5:00 minutes in length. DVD-Pal, VHS, Mini DV, DV Cam. The screening is part of C of the Willing , a 24 hour event, in which we will move through London, explore meanings of the 'C' as well as various notions of willingness. We are proposing an alternative to the Calendar Day, by beginning and ending in daylight. We'd like to stretch the very understanding and location of standard time and the Meridian. Post-PM, post-AM. Noon Saturday October 29 to Noon Sunday October 30 The event has been organised in collaboration with the MA students from the Curating Contemporary Art course at the Royal College of Art, with the support of the Monique Beudert Fund. For specific times and locations please visit: Admission free |
MOOLAADÉ (15) 1.45 (Sen/B Faso/Cam/Mor/Tun/ Fr 2004) dir.Ousmane Sembene 125m. Subtitles. “Veteran Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene here tackles the controversy of female circumcision in a passionate drama set in a rural village in Burkina Faso. When four little girls flee a purification ceremony and ‘the cut’, they take refuge with Collé, a woman who refused to have her own daughter circumcised. She casts a mystical protection (the moolaadé of the title) and a standoff follows. On one side is Collé, and on the other is the Salidana, a group of women cloaked in red robes who perform the age-old circumcison rites. It is a warm-hearted and wryly observed take on village life. This is an impassioned and uplifting film in which brightly coloured plastic bowls, rutting goats and gossiping women all vie for attention.”
(Burk Faso/Fr 2004) dir. Fanta Régina Nacro 100m. Subtitles. “In an unnamed African country reeling from a decade of genocidal civil war, a chance for peace. The President and his wife Edna are – despite the slaughter of their son, a loss still bitterly present to Edna – travelling to a rebel encampment where Colonel Theo and his wife Soumari wait, wary and hopeful, to receive their entourage and establish an accord. Few among those gathered, however, are willing and able to overlook the past. Opening before dusk at a meandering dawdle and building with terrible momentum to a conflagration that threatens to halt the dawn, this film is at once a compendium of contemporary African ordeal and a compelling local tragedy that prompts comparison with Shakespeare and the Greeks. Nacro’s remarquably assured first feature has its comic elements, but they’re laced with unease. Powerfully performed, punctuated by flashes of brutality and grounded in the real, THE NIGHT OF TRUTH is urgently concerned with the constant vigilance necessary to check man’s bestiality.” |
BROKEN FLOWERS (15) 1.00 (US 2005) dir.Jim Jarmush 106m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
BROKEN FLOWERS (15) 1.00 (US 2005) dir.Jim Jarmush 106m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
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NOSFERATU, EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS (PG) 11.15pm (Germany 1922) dir.FW Murnau 63m. The classic revamped! Murnau's vampire tale returns for a one-off showing, and if you've never seen it before you'll never see it like this again... almost lost entirely when every print was ordered to be destroyed in 1925, the film managed Orlok-like to dodge the flames and is now firmly embedded in the cinematic psyche. Max Schreck's monster is more walking virus than Transylvanian dandy, crawling through the cracks in the Hutter's marriage, and a community where doubt and suspicion have become epidemic. Sounds familiar? This screening will be accompanied by a live electronic score from DJ and composer Nacho Martin, combining vinyl and sequencers to resurrect the Count in modern-day Hackney. For the dead travel fast... (UK 2005) dir.Camille Brooks 10m. A decade ago four mature students set out to test the Mk III Kamera of the Subkonscious, which shot directly onto typewriter ribbon. You sent it away in a special yellow envelope, and it got turned into footage. Imagine that.
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THE 411 - THE BOTTOM LINE ON AMHURST ROAD (U) 1.30 (UK 2005) dir.Omar F. Okai 40m. This documentary focuses on the residents of the Amhurst Road estate in Hackney and was made in August as an opportunity for people to talk about their lives, interests, opinions and environment and to offer suggestions for improvement. An Okai Collier Company production. Admission free |
Christopher Hampton is one of Britain's most prominent dramatists renowned for his critically acclaimed work including DANGEROUS LIAISONS, his films as writer-director (CARRINGTON, IMAGINING ARGENTINA) and his work as screenwriter-for-hire (THE QUIET AMERICAN). Christopher Hampton will share his thoughts on the art and craft of screenwriting with Gareth Evans, editor of Vertigo magazine. To accompany the masterclass, Christopher Hampton has chosen two classic films, DANGEROUS LIAISONS (for which he won an Oscar) and Billy Wilder's SUNSET BOULEVARD.
SUNSET BOULEVARD (PG) 1.30 (US 1950) dir.Billy Wilder 106m. Re-release. “If the finest things in life are written on an empty stomach, as an agent claims here, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett must have been ravenous when they penned SUNSET BOULEVARD. Not so much biting the hand that fed them as devouring both arms, their gothic melodrama remains the bitterest attack ever launched on Hollywood. This is both a savage indictment of the star system, and an all-too-knowing depiction of a writer's impotence in Hollywood. Get ready for your close-up with the finest movie ever made about the narcissistic hellhole that is Hollywood.”
(US 1988) dir. Stephen Frears 120m. “Choderlos de Laclos’ 18th century novel is a monument to lust, guilt and duplicity, written in letter form. One of the film’s enormous strenghs is scriptwriter Christopher Hampton’s decision to go back to the novel, and save only the best from his play. Malkovitch plays the professional philanderer Valmont and Close, the sadistic aristocrat with whom he plots to ruin both a social union and a virtuous woman. The result is a sombre, manipulative affair in which the decor is never allowed to usurp our interest. Broader, nastier even than the play, it uses recurring epistolary motifs, shadow and close-up to convey the themes of the piece: the relationships between pleasure and pain, our inability to control others, our endless desire to do so. Malkovitch’s final demise, run through, wasted and resigned, recalls the misty-eyed days of Fairbanks and Flynn; while Close, all eye-contact, front, and self-possession, ends the film unforgettably as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of decency.” + discussion with Christopher Hampton chaired by Gareth Evans |
TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE (PG) 1.00 (UK 2005) dirs.Tim Burton & Mike Johnson 77m. Animation. “It's been too long since Tim Burton's last stop-motion gem, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), but the wait was worth it. This is another wonderfully macabre fable that feels like a timeless classic from the moment it starts. Victor Van Dort (voiced by Depp) is dreading his impending marriage to Victoria Everglot (Watson). But it's the perfect match: the Van Dorts (Ullman and Whitehouse) are nouveau riche looking for respectability, while the Everglots (Lumley and Finney) are penniless aristocracy in need of cash. Surprise, Victor and Victoria turn out to actually like each other. Then after an attack of nerves, Victor takes a walk in the woods, where he inadvertently marries the murdered bride Emily (Bonham Carter) and becomes stranded in the land of the dead. This macabre musical about a young bridegroom who mistakenly weds a girl from beyond the grave is an endearingly schizoid Frankenstein of a movie, by turns relentlessly high-spirited and darkly poignant.” An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
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BEWITCHED (PG) 2.30 (US 2005) dir.Nora Ephron 98m. “BEWITCHED is not the usual reworking of an old sitcom. It's a shrewd reimagining of the show's original premise, updated and retooled for a world that already knows all about Samantha and Darrin. It's funny, easily the funniest and least self-conscious movie that director Nora Ephron has made. The sheer skill involved in making BEWITCHED is worth standing back to appreciate. Screenwriters Ephron and her sister Delia are able to get laughs and make character points even in the moments of laying out a fairly involved exposition, and that's no small thing. That's skilled craftsmanship. Nicole Kidman plays Isabel, a witch who longs to experience life as non-magical human beings experience it. Unlike Samantha, she has led a sheltered existence and doesn't know the ways of mortals. That's a shrewd innovation in that it makes use of Kidman's comic gifts and doubles the number of funny characters in the movie. Will Ferrell plays Jack Wyatt, who's a bigger idiot than Darrin and not as nice a guy. A self-centered has-been whose film career is in decline, Jack agrees to star in a TV remake of BEWITCHED but only if an unknown is cast as his co-star. He discovers Isabel and insists that the network hire her, figuring he can walk all over her. But one can't walk all over a witch for too long...” £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/free for Over 60’s |
| Thu 10 Nov • Parents & Babies Club
TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE (PG) 1.00 (UK 2005) dirs.Tim Burton & Mike Johnson 77m. Animation. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
Sat 12 Nov • London Children's Film Festival
(Japan 1992) dir.Hayao Miyazaki 93m. Animation. A beautifully animated story set in Italy in the 1930s, where the greatest fighter ace is... a pig. High above the clouds, he and Donald Curtis, his daredevil arch rival, compete for glory. As you can expect from Miyazaki, the animation is fantastic with an astounding level of detail, especially in the flying sequences. A real treat for the entire family. (Courtesy of Optimum Releasing) £5.50/£4.50 Concs & Under 15's (USA 2005) dir.David LaChapelle 86m. Documentary. This exciting documentary reveals a groundbreaking dance phenomenon with roots in hip-hop, clowning and youth culture, that's exploding on the streets of South Central, Los Angeles. Famed photographer turned director David LaChapelle has taken advantage of unprecedented access, to bring to light a revolutionary form of artistic expression borne from oppression. (Courtesy of Redbus Film Distribution) £5.50/£4.50 Concs & Under 15's |
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HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (PG) 1.45 (France/Japan 1959) dir.Alain Resnais 89m. Subtitles. “Hiroshima's mushroom cloud has probably inspired more glib statements and images than any other 20th century phenomenon. So it's particularly refreshing to find that it still has some meaning in Resnais' first feature. Marguerite Duras' script centres on a Japanese man and a French woman coming together in Hiroshima, exploring each other and their past lives, both of which have been far from rosy. The woman was punished as a wartime collaborator after an affair with a German soldier; the man's whole life was shattered by the bomb. Duras and Riva revel masochistically in the woman's sad story (she had her head shaved in prison), but Resnais does his best to soft-pedal the novelettish touches, and presents a melancholy disquisition on the complex relationships between world calamities and personal histories, between the past, present and future.” (Russia 2005) dir.Aleksandr Sokurov 115m. Subtitles. “The first two films in Sokurov’s trilogy about (in)famous men of power – MOLOCH (on Hitler) and TAURUS (Lenin) – were turgid, trite and and a tad problematic. Happily, this final instalment, chronicling a day in the life of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito at the end of WWII, makes for a conclusion that’s not only superior to its predecessors but a fine, fascinating film in its own right. What makes Hirohito’s story special is that he agreed, when surrendering to the Allies and commanding his subjects to stop sacrificing their lives for Japan and him, to renounce his imperial claim to divinity. Wisely, Sokurov focuses on this tricky moment of transition, with Hirohito introduced as he dresses with the rather redundant help of a loyal old retainer. In showing Hirohito trying out this novel notion, Sokurov avails himself of a witty, touching and supremely expressive turn by Ogata.” |
THE CONSTANT GARDENER (15) 12.30 (US/UK 2005) dir.Fernando Meirelles 129m. “In adapting John le Carré novel, Meirelles more than lives up to the promise of his brilliant debut CITY OF GOD. This is one of the most gripping and powerfully moving thrillers in memory; absolutely everything about this film works perfectly. Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is an unassuming British diplomat in Kenya who loves working in his garden. When his activist wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) is murdered, he sets off to find out what happened to her. Along the way he discovers things about his wife he never knew, and uncovers the conspiracy she was tenaciously trying to expose. Soon Justin's colleagues (Danny Huston and Bill Nighy), a company owner (Gerard McSorley) and a spy (Donald Sumpter) are all warning him to stop digging. Due to Meirelles' thrillingly inventive direction, the story's three layers balance flawlessly – conspiracy thriller, romantic drama and global-political exposé. This intelligent filmmaking lifts everything to an unexpectedly important level. In addition to being a gripping thriller and a stirring love story, the film highlights events and situations taking place right now – injustice that slips beneath the radar of public conscience.” An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
THE CONSTANT GARDENER (15) 12.30 (US/UK 2005) dir.Fernando Meirelles 129m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
Sat 19 Nov • London Children's Film Festival
(Canada 2004) dir.André Mélançon 102m. Eleven-year old Daniel is struggling with his grief following a death in the family. Feeling abandoned by his parents, yet supported by his gang of mates, Daniel embarks on training a feisty stray dog to enter the prestigious Superdogs competition. This is a story of friendship and teamwork, and proof of how much one boy and his dog can take on! £5.50/£4.50 Concs & Under 15's (Mexico 2004) dir.Luis Mandoki 110 min. Subtitles. Imagine it’s your twelfth birthday – and your first thought is, today I join the army… In the 1980’s, El Salvador saw one of the bitterest civil wars in modern times, in which child soldiers were forcibly conscripted and faced with certain death. Innocent Voices explores this time through the eyes of 11-year-old Chava who tries to come to terms with the dangers around him. £5.50/£4.50 Concs & Under 15's |
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WALK ON WATER (15) 1.45 (Israel/Sweden 2003) dir.Eytan Fox 103m. Subtitles. “Eyal is a Mossad agent who, as the film opens, performs a perfunctory assassination on a Palestinian leader and then returns home to discover that his girlfriend, Iris, has killed herself in his absence. Despite this trauma, Eyal ignores his superior’s advice to take time off and accepts a new assignment to investigate the whereabouts of an elderly ex-Nazi whose unwitting grandson, Axel, will soon arrive in Israel. Going undercover, Eyal poses as Axel’s driver as a sly means of discovering more about his grandfather’s Nazi past. It’s a pursuit that ultimately leads Eyal to Germany and a Himmelman family reunion… Screenwriter Gal Uchovsky makes a fine effort of exploring the conflict in modern Israel between tradition and modernity, the past and the present. If anything, Uchovsky tries to shoehorn too much into his story, but it’s a smart stab at politically enlightened entertainment all the same.” + KING’S GAME (Kongekabale) (12A) 3.50 (Denmark 2004) dir.Nikolaj Arcel 107m. Subtitles. “At the moment, Denmark is producing the most thoughtful and interesting films not only in Scandinavia but in western Europe, and Nikolaj Arcel's gripping political thriller, KING’S GAME is fairly typical. The movie turns on the events following a car crash in which the head of the country's Centre party is seriously injured a few days before an election he's expected to win. With the leader in hospital, the party's press officer starts briefing against the obvious successor, a woman of liberal convictions and implicitly in favour of a conniving, right-wing contender. The chosen conduit is an inexperienced reporter at a leading broadsheet who happens to be the son of a former justice minister and is promoted by an editor anxious to keep in with a future Prime Minister. The plot thickens as charges of corruption are levelled at the female politician's husband and the medical condition of the brain-dead leader is kept from the press. This is an exciting story and what makes it especially convincing is that it is all very low key.” |
THE CONSTANT GARDENER (15) 12.30 (US/UK 2005) dir.Fernando Meirelles 129m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
THE CONSTANT GARDENER (15) 12.30 (US/UK 2005) dir.Fernando Meirelles 129m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions/£3.00 OAP’s |
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Fri 25 Nov • Late Night Shorts FUTURE SHORTS (15) 11.15pm
PISTACHE EVA
£5.50/£4.50 Concessions |
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (12A) 12.15 (UK/US 2005) dir.Mike Newell 157m Here comes the long awaited fourth instalment of the HARRY POTTER series. During the summer before entering his fourth year at Hogwarts, Harry’s been having strange dreams about men plotting murders. Meanwhile he gets the chance to go to the Quidditch World Cup with best friend Ron Weasley but his fun is soon spoilt as what is called the ‘Dark Mark’ appears over the stadium. This is evidence that Voldemort's Death Eaters are gaining strength and that the Dark Lord is ready to rise again... Once back at school, Harry finds himself selected to compete in the TriWizard Tournament which will be hosted at Hogwarts. Student representatives from three different wizarding schools are to compete in a series of contests and Harry will meet the challenge of his life. Will he be able to keep up with school while competing for the TriWizard Tournament or will the challenges along with Voldemort's rebirth be too much for the young hero? An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
Shortseasons Autumn Fest 05 (15) 6.30 A one hour selection of short films from new, fresh, and talented filmmakers including a Cannes nominee and this year’s BAFTA winner.
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HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (12A) 10.30am (UK/US 2005) dir.Mike Newell 157m. An opportunity for parents with babies to visit the cinema without having to find a baby sitter or worry about their babies causing disturbance. A secure space is provided for pushchairs. £5.50/£4.50 Concessions & Under 15’s/£3.00 OAP’s |
Sat 8 Oct • Special Preview
Sun 9 Oct • Double bill
+ ONE LOVE (12A) 4.00
Sunday 23 Oct • The Times bfi London Film Festival
TWO GIRLS (15) 3.45
Thur 27 Oct • Parents & Babies Club
Sat 29 Oct • 100 Black Men of London Black History Month presentation
Sun 30 Oct • Black History Month double bill
+ THE NIGHT OF TRUTH (18) 4.10
Fri 4 Nov • Late Night Show
Sat 5 Nov • Southern Housing Foundation & Dalston Youth Project present an Okai Collier Company production
+ DANGEROUS LIAISONS (15) 3.50
THE CRIMSON PIG (U) 1.30
RIZE (PG) 3.45
Sun 13 Nov • Double bill
+ THE SUN (PG)
Tue 15 Nov • Parents & Babies Club
DANIEL AND THE SUPERDOGS (U) 1.15
INNOCENT VOICES (12A) 3.30
TEMPO
UNDRESSING MY MOTHER
KILLING THE AFTERNOON
POL POT'S BIRTHDAY
LE GRAND SOMMEIL
WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN
NOT LONG NOW
FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING
Tue 29 Nov • Leapfrog Entertainment presents
THE BANKER
BEFORE DAWN
THE WELL
MOVING ON
107 Kingsland Hi
gh Street E8
(corner John Campbell Road)
Tel 020 7241 9410
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